I read this book both as a book club discussion at the Mallorean Tavern (see the discussion thread here) and as a podcast episode (see episode post here). Through the course of these discussions, I found that this is a favorite book of many people, and while I did enjoy it, I don’t think it’s taking that place for me.

Diana Bishop is a historian studying in residence at Oxford University. Her primary focus is the history of science, including alchemy. One day, she calls up a manuscript from the Bodleian Library and realizes that it has some sort of strange magic spell on it.

Did I mention that Diana is a witch? And not just a witch, but from a famous family of witches, dating back to the Salem witch trials?

This manuscript has apparently been deemed missing for years, when it suddenly appears at Diana’s request. Because of this, magical creatures from all over Oxford start following Diana, waiting for her to request the manuscript again. One of those creatures is Matthew Clairmont, a vampire who also happens to be studying biology and genetics. Diana has long since tried to distance herself from her magical roots, leaving her vulnerable to the other witches who want to use her to get the manuscript, which is very powerful and could possibly hold the secrets of their entire existence. As Matthew tries his best to protect Diana, they are drawn into a forbidden romance, since witches and vampires are not supposed to mix. What follows is a bit of a whirlwind. We travel through England and Scotland, to France and then to Diana’s family home in America. Diana struggles to come into her powers as a witch and it is soon clear that she is very powerful indeed.

My main complaint with this book has to do with pacing. Harkness is a historian herself, so she throws in a whole lot of detail about . . . well, everything. Her writing is beautifully crafted, but her extreme attention to details sometimes drags the plot to a snail’s pace. There were many times that I thought to myself, “Just get on with it! I don’t care what kind of food they’re eating!” They could have probably shaved 100 pages off the book (which is long, at 579 pages in the paperback edition) and still been able to tell the story just fine.

Overall, the story was very interesting, I liked the characters, and I was intrigued enough to read the second book in this series as well (review coming soon). And yes, I will probably read the third book when it comes out, because I do want to find out what happens.

My GoodReads rating: 4 out of 5 stars